Final?

I'm a little confused about this part. There aren't really any guidelines and I may be totally blind but I swear the only place I saw it on the website was at the bottom of the syllabus saying write an essay. I'm assuming I'm supposed to turn it in through the blog.

Beginning this semester I had briefly been using Facebook Pages to connect with an audience and share my work. The page was linked to twitter and I was keeping it very simple. The business has thus far been evolving at a very organic and slow pace. I wanted to learn what more I could do to advertise in a more cost-effective manner.

Through the course of the semester I became more aware of the social media tools available to me. I had previously considered pinterest, linkedIn or youtube to be difficult platforms to maintain that would not greatly benefit my business. I am now seeing that they can lend a very organic, close contact to a market. People enjoy the interaction and the quick, visual information they can gain from these platforms. I still see them as being a lot of extra work because a visual means of communication requires quality photography, which I simply do not have.

Even though I studied marketing in college, I failed to apply some very basic principles that I learned. Considering my target marketing and demographic at the beginning of the semester was extremely helpful. As the business unfolds and becomes more mature, I am learning what areas to push and what to pull away from. The business began as a hodgepodge of things I love and enjoy. I have a collection of used books and clothing. What I am seeing though is that I want to target a more affluent market. While they enjoy finding second hand items that fit their home, the books and clothing are unnecessary. I hope to focus my efforts on cuter, one of a kind items that would complement someone's home. Posting images of my finds on facebook will encourage people to visit my store.

Additionally, the above question of demographics led me down a path of exploring my brand. While this doesn't directly apply to social media, the question of who I was targeting and how made me realize that I need to create some separations in my business. I have decided to remove my store name (ReNew) from the bath and body products and create a separate identity for them. In this way I can begin to market the items separately and as a wholesale product. This brand would benefit through business to business marketing and contacts found through LinkedIn.

I am now posting quite regularly. I used to be a bit afraid to post too often, that I might bother my followers. What I realize is that I may lose one or two, but having a strong presence and repeating my message is important.

I hope to incorporate blogging and a newsletter in the near future. I am somewhat intimidated by the upkeep that a successful blog needs, but feel that with scheduling, I would be able to maintain it at least once per week.

I feel much more open to social media now. I feel confident that I can connect and share information with consumers on many platforms and really grow my business in a cost effective manner. What I really enjoy is that the projects I am working on are involving real people who are buying my artwork. So long as I connect with them socially, I should be able to expand my world steadily.

This summer I am expanding my business into a working studio space for my artwork. I am struggling with separating my store (ReNew) with my art identity. I wonder if they should remain the same or if I should divide them into two distinct concepts, twitter accounts, facebook pages, etc. I don't feel the need to because they are both a reflection of my work and personality. I want this business to remain personal. I think that people enjoy watching my progress, struggle and victories!

Ultimately I received a great education on the use of social media, alternate platforms I had never considered and look forward to incorporating this information into my marketing strategy. I feel up to date on current information and hope to maintain my knowledge as social media continues to evolve.

Timeline for Marketing

Considering the variables from recent lectures, decide which tools from the semester you would implement in your online marketing strategy. How much time do you think your business should spend on social media marketing and why? In your blog, please explain why you chose the tools you did, and how you might use them to use and test a strategy over the next six months. Plot out a rough draft plan of the next month of content across the sites you’ve chosen, and how you hope they might grow or sustain your business. Be as detailed as possible, including daily or weekly time requirements to meet the goals.

I work in a very small company (myself), have very limited time (working full-time job, boyfriend lives in city, not in Julian, plus taking classes online) and have a very limited budget. Fortunately my business lends itself to social media. People are interested in connecting, watching what I am doing and supporting me. I would like to increase the amount of time I spend using social media, but not significantly. I believe if I spent 1 hour a week dedicated to social media I would increase traffic and engagement. I would like to dedicate some of this time to taking professional looking photographs so I can build a pinterest following.

Over the next six months I would like to practice:

scheduling posts on Mondays for the entire week
photographing projects as they are completed with professional lighting
writing a blog post at least 1x a week
connecting with professionals and using social media to further my business (linkedin and twitter)

week 14

My social media strategy is to build interest, connect to fellow artist and connect to professionals who may be interested in my work. An example of how this strategy will function: I am currently designing and creating plates for a local chef. He is very active in social media. I have no doubt that my art will be shared through his social network. Having an active online profile will allow me to connect to others who are interested in my work. Facebook and twitter are the driving force behind my social connections, but I am interested in exploring linkedIn as well. I've recently realized how beneficial selling wholesale and to businesses who shop in bulk would be. I continue to use FB to share my success with others. Every time I sell a painting or create something new I post it there.

I would like to write a blog for my website to share knowledge and experience with others. There are many times when I share information on facebook and would like to provide more details by explaining the process or showing more information.  I think would be a great way to organize information and to share more about my artistic process.

I would like to incorporate pinterest into my social media skills but feel the need to take better photographs before this is launched. I think it could be a great way to share my artwork,  but since it is such a visual platform, high quality photographs are very important.

All of this requires that I become a bit more organized than I currently am. There is a lot to juggle between my full time job and my creative career path, but my hope is to transition to the latter as my only job. I sometimes consider outsourcing some of my work, but for the most part I have had success in taking baby steps and finishing what I am able. All of this is a lot to work towards, but once it becomes routine and established should be easy to maintain. I believe my next step will be to begin setting up a blog.

Facebook Pages Analytics

I have been struggling with facebook and feeling its rhythm. My goal for the FB pages is to spread the word of my art and body products through friends and supporters. I believe that as I sell, my 'likers' will view me as a serious and credible artist and think of me if they are considering art.

I did not see a large boost in reach and interaction as classmates commented. I did see a large impact when I promoted a post.

This screenshot was taken on Saturday. While there were 12 new likes that week, you can see that the engagement still fell from the week prior. I continued to post on my page with regularity. 

 This is a shot from Sunday. The third post down generated the most traffic due to promoting it with $5.

Again, my reach appears to be going down, not up, though my post engagement has risen. So I guess that's a good sign! Post clicks are also increasing. I find that as my pages likes increase, I see more of a variety of people engaging in my posts. 

This is a screen shot of my reach based on posts this year. The dark orange spikes reflect times when I boosted a post for $5. I was able to glean from this information that the most popular posts are ones that are somewhat personal and sharing something more authentic. However the highest reaching post was my 'free lotion giveaway'. 

My goal is to make more posts that are driven by my passion and creativity. I want to share the personal journey and thought behind my products. I also plan to get my website more up to day and link back to it more frequently. 

google analytics

Traffic sources: 

Could be beneficial to understand how people are arriving to my website. What content to they find appealing, what are they looking for? I could incorporate more keywords and products based on their searches and location.

Social Reports:

I rely heavily on social media to share my products and spread the word about what I'm doing. I think understanding how my use of social media is actually impacting my traffic would be very important.

Map Overlay:

This could actually be very interesting because my business is based in a tourist town. While many of my customers come from the San Diego region, I would like to know where people are visiting from and if out of town customers are discovering my website. This would give me valuable information about advertising in town who I should market to.

Mobile Traffic:

This would be interesting for similar reasons to map overlay. People who are visiting Julian would be looking up information on their smart phones. I could tap into their activity by watching this statistic.

coupon deal

My store has an eclectic collection of thrift items, handmade products and art. I would like to drive more local traffic to come in and shop as well as encourage visitors up for the day to seek out my shop. A few ideas:

- A coupon that advertises 3 articles of clothing (including jeans) for $12 (regularly $5 each).
- A coupon that offers a free lotion with any purchase over $50.

The first I would advertise locally in our little town paper to encourage students and adults to come in and shop.

The second may be a good deal to put on groupon.

The lotion is a huge hit and I sell out constantly. I think using it to encourage sales of other items may be beneficial.

Other Social Media Tools

What four additional online marketing tools do you believe could be important to the growth of your business? 

How could you integrate them into your current strategy?

If you choose to create a new account in GooglePlus, create a location on a Google map, let us know.

I like the idea of using google + and what they are trying to accomplish (more real life style of sharing) but it just doesn't seem to be a catchy tool. Maybe I need to use it more to experience what it has to offer. I used to use google reader and am generally a fan of google tools, so I suppose I should give it a go!

I think that LinkedIn could be a powerful tool for my business. I make products and think that I would be successful selling at parties or in bulk. Real Estate agents and other positions that frequently gift their clients could become a solid target market for me. They would be shopping FOR my primary target market (health conscious women with disposable income). If I were to use LinkedIn to network with existing connections and advertise to develop new ones, I may expand my business in a more 'back door' fashion.

Since I live in a tourist based town, groupon or living social could be beneficial. I believe that when people are traveling to a destination they may seek bargains or deals beforehand. This is somewhat costly for my small shop, but I may consider it in the future.

Out of the above three ideas I think that LinkedIn would be the most promising. I would develop packages and gift bags in bulk to market to those who need a quick and simple gift idea. Additionally I could advertise body and health parties in which I educate customers about the benefits of natural products.